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LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA 



ESTHER M. CLARK 

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Jl Brief Compilation of Positive Proofs, together 
with Opinions of Judges^ establishing author- 
ship of the Poem entitled *"^he Call 
of Kansas" in Esther M. Clark, 
of Chanute, Kansas 




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NOVEMBER 25, 1914 






tribune Pub Co. <a^^» Chanute, Kans. 






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THE CALL OF KANSAS 



Surfeited here with beauty, and the sensuous-sweet perfume 
Borne in from a thousand gardens and orchards of orange bloom ; 
Awed by the silent mountains, stunned by the breakers' roar — 
The restless ocean pounding and tugging away at the shore — 
I lie on the warm' sand beach and hear, above the cry of the sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling. 

Calling me. 

Sweeter to me than the salt sea spray, the fragrance of summer 

rains ; 
Nearer my heart than these mighty hills are the windswept 

Kansas plains ; 
Dearer the sight of a shy, wild rose by the roadside's dusty way 
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields, ablaze in the sun of May. 
Gay as the bold poinsettia is, and the burden of pepper trees, 
The sunflower, tawny and gold and brown, is richer to me than 

these. 
And rising ever above the song of the hoarse, insistent sea. 
The voice of the prairie, calling. 

Calling me. 

Kansas, beloved Mother, today in an alien land, 

Yours is the name I have idly traced with a bit of wood in the 

sand. 
The name that, flung from a scornful lip, will make the hot 

blood start; 
The name that is graven, hard and deep, on the core of my loyal 

heart. 
O higher, clearer and stronger yet, than the boom of the savage 

sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, 

'^ailing me. 



Long Beach, Col. Esther M. Clark. 

May, 1907. 



(3) 



FOREWORD 



Here in Chanute and Neosho county, where 
Esther M. Clark was horn and has grown to 
womanhood, the indisputable proofs of her 
authorship of "The Call of Kansas'' which fol- 
low will not add pne jot or tittle to the faith 
the Home Folks have in the justness of her 
cause. These proofs are published to establish 
her rights against frauds and imposters for all 
time to come, and with the hope that Kansas 
may never again be disgraced by a claim so 
utterly baseless and palpably false as that which 
makes the publication of the follozmng matter 
pertinent. 



/^.f^^c^/^^a^^^^-^ 



(5) 



STATEMENT OF W. E. CONNELLEY 

Secretary^ of Kansas State Historical Society 



"THE CALL OF KANSAS." 
A controversy has arisen over the authorship of this fav- 
orite Kansas poem. Since its publication in 1907 it has been 
the most widely read of any Kansas production. Miss Esther 
M. Clark of Chanute, sent the poem from California to J. L. 
Brady, Esq., editor of the Journal, at Lawrence. Up to this 
past summer no one disputed that Miss Clark was the author 
of the poem, which expresses as none other can, the deep hold 
Kansas takes on her children. It expresses in verse what 
Ingalls so eloquently said in prose on the same subject. Mrs. 
T. J. Karr, of Girard, was a Miss Emma Clark of Hutchinson. 
She claims that she wrote ''The Call of Kiansas" in 1899, while 
on a trip to California, and that her mother caused the same to 
be published in the Hutchinson Gazette of that year. A search 
of the files of the Gazette fails to show the poem. However, 
the issues of August 3, 1899, July 19 and 26, 1900, and Novem- 
ber 7, 1901, are not in the files in my office. The authorship of 
this fine reproduction becomes an important matter to the people 
of Kansas. Both parties to the controversy asked the assistance 
of the Historical Society in the search to establish facts. The 
Secretary requested them both to file with the Society proofs 
to support their claims. Miss Clark has already filed much and 
will file much more when certain papers now being used in the 
preparation of a brief supporting her claim are no longer needed 
for that work. She hopes to file them during the month of Oc- 
tober, and will probably do so. Up to this date (October 9, 
1914), Mrs. Karr has not filed any papers in support of her 
claim. Her husband has assured the Society, however, that he 
will file such papers. The Society has no interest in this con- 
troversy beyond the establishment of the question of the real 
authorship of the poem. 

W. E. CONNELLEY, 

Secretary. 

(7) 



After the foregoing statement was made by Mr. Connelley 
as Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Miss Kath- 
arine Lasley, one of the editors of the Hutchinson Gazette, sent 
to Secretary Connelley her affidavit in respect to the numbers of 
the Hutchinson Gazette missing from the files in the Historical 
Society and noted by Mr. Connelley in his statement, which 
affidavit is in words and figures as follows, to- wit: 

"Hutchinson, Kansas, October 24, 1914. 
The files of the Hutchinson Gazette for the dates August 
3, 1899, July 19 and 26, 1900, and the file of the then Weekly 
Bee of November 9, 1901, have been carefully examined by me 
and contain no poem or poems written by Miss Emma Clark, 
now Mrs. T. J. Karr, of Girard. The date November 9 is the 
proper date. Publication was on Saturday and there was no 
issue on November 7, 1901. 

KATHARINE LASLEY. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me a Notary Public, this 
24th day of October of the year 1914. 

C. A. BAIMM. 

(Seal.) Notary Public. 

My Commission expires October 30, 1916. 

In, her letter inclosing said affidavit to Mr. Connelley, 
Miss Katharine Lasley states : 

''I am sorry that we have no duplicate copies of our files, 
but we do have in our bound files all the copies jnissing from 
the State files — namely, the dates August 3, 1899, July 19 and 
26, 1900, and the November 9 (there is no November 7 — ^pub 
lication was on Saturday, and that was November 9) 1901. I 
have carefully examined them and they do not contain any 
poetry written by Miss Emma M. Clark, now Mrs. T. J. Karr 
of Girard. Neither do the issues immediately preceding No- 
vember 9, 1 90 1, or those immediately following, for I looked 
them through to make sure of the dates." 



(8) 



"THE CALL OF KANSAS" 

Some Observations 6p IValt Mason 



One of the most curious things in the world is the fact that 
any person may claim the work of another as his own, and at 
once have a respectable following. John A. Joyce, a man who 
wrote miles of doggerel without ever approaching real poetry, 
came forth with the claim that he wrote "Laugh and the World 
Laughs With You," the most popular of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's 
productions and thousands of people took his word for it and 
believe to this day that he wrote it. The controversy concern- 
ing the authorship raged for years, and hasn't entirely died out 
yet. The claim of Joyce is absurd. In all his tons of doggerel 
there is not one line in the same class with the disputed poe!m, 
while Mrs. Wilcox has written several poems as good and pos- 
sessing the same style and feeling. People should consider this 
when trying to decide between rival claimants. For years Esther 
Clark has been accepted as the author of "The Call of Kansas," 
a poem known to practically every man, woman and child in the 
state. The one who doesn't know it should be ashamed. She 
wrote it in California and neglected to have a notary public pres- 
ent at the time, to testify to her authorship. This is a common 
negligence of authors. When you are going to write an im- 
mortal poem, you should call in a notary or justice of the peace 
to watch you while you do it and frame the proper affidavits. 
The Clark poem has been recited in every corner of Kansas 
for years and has appeared in every newspaper, and a man 
would need to hide in a well to escape being familiar with it. 
But along comes a Mrs. Carr — probably the Carr of Juggernaut 
— with a silly story to the effect that she wrote the poem a con- 
siderable time before it appeared under Esther Clark's name. 
She affirms that some locoed school superintendent used the 
poem in his work for a long time, and the poem appeared in 

)■ (9) 



the Hutchinson Gazette long before . Esther thought of being 
homesick in CaHfornia. Of course the copy of the Hutchinson 
Gazette, in which it is alleged to have appeared, is missing. It 
probably went to heaven in a chariot of fire. But the schoof 
superintendent says Mrs. Carr's story is true. He recited the 
poem many times before Esther wrote it. This flimsy story is 
ridiculous, yet so many Kansas people have accepted it as the 
truth that Miss Clark has been placed on her defense, which is 
a dirty shame. If that school superintendent used the poem in 
his business, as he says, what has become of all the people who 
heard him recite it? Some of them must have been struck by 
its beauty, and must have remembered it. If it really was pub- 
lished in the Hutchinson Gazette before Esther wrote it, that 
issue of the Gazette must have consisted of one copy only, and 
that copy must have been burned immediately upon leaving the 
press, for such a poem, published anywhere in Kansas, would 
attract immediate attention. Let somebody write another poem 
as good, and publish it in the most obscure paper in Kansas, and 
it will be famous in a week. You can't hide such a light under 
a bushel. The school superintendent must have been reciting 
"Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight," and in after years couldn''t 
distinguish it from "The Call of Kansas." The best evidence 
that Esther Clark wrote the poem is the fact that she has writ- 
ten others as good. Read her little book of poems and you will 
find several which are gems of purest ray serene, and, if you 
are a judge, you will note at once that their style and workman- 
ship are identical with the style and workmanship of "The Call 
of Kansas." Read her poem, "The Mother," and you will see 
the same true, tender sentiment which characterizes her more 
famous poem.. But Mrs. Carr of Juggernaut has never written, 
anything but flapdoodle. She says she has been writing for the 
press for years — and during those years she didn't know that 
"The Call of Kansas" was famous ! — and she never produced 
anything that attracted the shghtest attention. She was abso- 
lutely unknown when she bobbed up with her foolish story, yet 
hundreds of people, with a pervers^'ty hard to understand, at 
once accepted her as the author of the state's best poeim. After 
such an experience here at home we can no longer wonder that 
so many wrong-headed people refuse to believe in Shakespeare, 
and pin their faith to Bacon." 

(10) 



BRIEF 

In the Matter of the Controversy Over the Authorship of 
*' The Call of Kansas'' 

By S. W. BREWSTER 



STATEMENT. 

The poem entitled ''The Call of Kansas" was written by- 
Miss Esther M. Clark, of Chanute, Kansas, at Los Angeles, 
California, in the forepart of May, 1907, and its first publication 
was by the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal, J. L. Brady, editor, 
upon the 14th day of May, 1907. 

Miss Clark was then spending a few months in Los An- 
geles, and was employed as proof reader in a certain printing 
office on Spring Street in said City of Los Angeles. She was 
rooming with Misses Edith and Rose Green, formierly of Erie, 
Kansas. 

A very comprehensive Affidavit, consisting of a detailed 
statement giving complete history of said poem from its incep- 
tion to the present, has been made by Miss Clark and filed with 
the Kansas State Historical Society. Said Affidavit is here 
made a part of this Brief and is as follows, to-wit: 

State of Kansas, County of Neosho, ss. 

Esther M. Clark, of lawful age, being first duly sworn, de- 
poses and says : 

I reside in Chanute, Kansas, but am connected with the 
University of Kansas as a clerk in the University Extension 
Division. My attention has been called to certain claims made 
by a Mrs. Thomas J. Karr, of Girard, Kansas, that she is the 
author of the poem, "The Call of Kansas." This claim is ab- 

(H) 



solutely untrue. I will very willingly answer any questions 
propounded to me by any one, in this connection. 

(Here the following questions were asked of Miss Clark 
on behalf of the Kansas State Historical Society:) 

Q. When and where did you write the poem, "The Call 
of Kansas." 

A. I wrote the poem, ''The Call of Kansas," in May, 
1907, in Los Angeles, California. I was working as proof read- 
er in a job printing office on Spring Street and rooming with 
the Misses Edith and Rose Green, formerly of Erie, Kansas. 
I was suffering from the most severe attack of homesickness 
that I had ever experienced. It was in one sleepless night that 
the line, *'The voice of the prairie calling me," first came to me, 
as a single line always does, in every poem I have ever written. 
I worked on it that night and off and on for several nights 
after that, and took down what I had composed on a typewriter 
that I kept in the parlor of the house. One afternoon before 
I had finished composing the poem, I was going to the other 
part of town to call on two former Chanute friends, Mrs. Etta 
Sutherland, formerly Miss Etta Harding, of Chanute, and Mrs. 
Maud Jansen, formerly Miss Maud Harding, of Chanute. I set 
myself to finish the incomplete poem before I reached their 
house, and it was just a half- block from where the car stopped 
to let me off that I completed it to my satisfaction. I took 
these concluding- lines down with a lead pencil on the typewrit- 
ten slip of the rest of the poem. Later I typed it all off one 
morning while I was waiting for a car to take me to work, 
and inclosed it in a letter to Mr. J. L. Brady, of the Lawrence 
(Kansas) Journal. I remember well, indeed, how the tears ran 
down my face as I sat there alone typing it off, and how I had 
cried myself to sleep of nights, in pure homesickness, while 
composing it. 

Q. When, where, and by whom was the poem' first pub- 
lished ? 

A. It was first published in the Lawrence Journal on the 
14th of May, 1907,, by Mr. J. L. Brady. 

Q. Under what title and over what name was it first pub- 
lished? 

A. It was first published under the title which Mr. J. L. 
Brady gave it: "The Call of Kansas." I had given it no title 
in the copy sent to him. It was first published with no name 
attached, by my own request, as my letter to Mr. Brady, which 
he afterwards published in the Lawrence Journal, will show. 
(This issue of the Lawrence Journal is among the files of the 
Kansas State Historical Society.) 

Q. Where was your home at the time you were visiting 
in Los Angeles? 

(12) 



A. My home at that time was in Chanute, Kansas, as it 
had been for over thirty years, and has been ever since I wrote 
"The Call of Kansas." 

Q. Why did you send the poem to the Lawrence Journal? 

A. I sent the poem to Mr. J. L. Brady of the Lawrence 
Journal, because all my work in the down town papers for my 
course in Journalism at the University of Kansas had been on 
the paper of which Mr. Brady was then editor, the Lawrence 
World. As I recall, he had become editor of the Lawrence 
Journal shortly before I went to California. After the burning 
of the old Lawrence Journal office a few years ago, these two 
papers merged and became what is now known as the Lawrence 
Journal- World, of which Mr. J. L. Brady is the editor. 

Q. Did the Lawrence Journal ever afterwards mention 
you as the author of "The Call of Kansas," and when? 

A. Soon after its first publication in the Lawrence Jour- 
nal, Mr. Brady wrote to me concerning the poem as follows: 
"This poem has been frequently commented upon to me. It is 
the finest thing you have written and it ought to have your 
name to it." (This letter, together with Mr. Brady's letter 
acknowledging his receipt of the poem from me is filed with the 
State Historical Society.) I consented that he publish in the 
Lawrence Journal that I was the author of "The Call of Kan- 
sas," which he did early in June, 1907, as dated clippings I have 
from other state papers will show. The exact date of the 
acknowledgment of the Lawrence Journal that I had written 
the poem, as well as what Mr. Brady had to say about it, may 
be found in the files of that paper at the rooms of the Kansas 
State Historical Society in Topeka. I have not that data with 
me in its exact form, but Mr. W. E. Connelley, Secretary of 
the Society, has it and will be glad to show the same to any one. 

Q. What success of popularity did the poem acquire at 
an early date after its first publication? 

A. Before I left Los Angeles for my home in Chanute, 
Kansas, the latter part of May, 1907, Mr. Brady had sent me 
three letters written to him, inquiring who had written the 
poem "The Call of Kansas." One was from William Allen 
White, of the Emporia Gazette, dated May 22, 1907, (this letter 
Mr. Brady afterwards published in the Lawrence Journal, to- 
gether with my letter asking him to with-hold my name from 
publication.) One was from Mr. Philip Eastman, city editor of 
the Topeka Capital at that time, dated May 20, 1907 ; one was 
from Mr. Eldon C. Newby, foreman of the Eldorado Republi- 
can, (at that time edited by the late T. B. Murdock,) dated 
June 3, 1907. All these letters are on file with the State His- 
torical Society, including Mr. Brady's correspondence with me 
after receiving and publishing "The Call of Kansas." 

(13) 



Q. In what forms has the poem "The Call of Kansas" 
been published, since May, 1907? 

A. It was first published by me in the form of a folder 
with a sunflower on the front. The work was done by Mr. 
John P. Shepard, of the Standard Printing Company, of Cha- 
nute, Kansas, and several hundred copies were issued, and sold 
and given away by me. These had my name attached to them 
and the date of the writing of the poem, May, 1907. Later, I 
got it out in the form of a postal with my name attached and a 
small picture of myself, set in the heart of a sunflower, in the 
corner. This work was done by Mr. A. G. Alrich, in his job 
printing office at Lawrence, Kansas, and several hundred copies 
were issued and sold. I think Mr. Alrich's books will show the 
number. After that, Mr. Carl Mettner, who was then building 
up a wholesale postcard trade in Lawrence, bought the cut of 
my picture which Mr. Alrich had had made and used, and ob- 
tained my consent to print the postcards, giving me a royalty 
thereon. After Mr. Mettner abandoned his wholesale postcard 
business, I got the cut back in my possession and it is now with 
Mr. John P. Shepard, of the Standard Printing Company at 
Chanute. Mr. Shepard has printed several thousand cards for 
me and I have sold them. The Fred Harvey eating house peo- 
ple took 700 of them at one time. Mr. Shepard also printed 
about 1,000 smaller folders of the verses, with my name and 
the date attached, and I had various Chanute artists paint dec- 
orative covers for them-. Mrs. Victor Cone, of Fort Collins, 
Colorado, (then Miss Ina Martin, of Chanute, Kansas), and 
Miss Ruth Alexander, of 1015 West 39th Street, Kansas City, 
Missouri, formerly of Chanute, Kansas, did the most if not all 
of the work. Miss Alexander also made and sold, with my 
name attached, a large number of hand-printed, hand painted 
copies, suitable for framing. There are several of these in Cha- 
nute homes at present, and I have one at my home, 502 South 
Lincoln Avenue, Chanute, Kansas. 

In the spring of 1910, I first published a little book entitled 
"The Call of Kansas and Other Verses, by Esther Mary Clark," 
the work being done by Mr. Charles C. Seewir, of the Indian 
Store, Lawrence, Kansas. The first edition, as I recall, was 
five hundred copies, and it contained eight poems in all, includ- 
ing the initial poem, "The Call of Kansas." In a later edition 
I added one poem, making nine in all. 

"The Call of Kansas" was used at least twice by Crane and 
Company, publishers, of Topeka, Kansas, in a little booklet they 
get out annually, and of which, in each instance, they issued 
and sent out about ten thousand copies, as I ami informed. 

It was used in the formi of a folder by the Shawnee Fire 
Insurance Company, of Topeka, and several thousand copies 

(14) 



issued. My correspondence with Mr. J. W. Going, of the Shaw- 
nee Fire Insurance Company, is filed with the State Historical 
Society. 

The poem was used as place cards at the annual banquet of 
the Kansas Day Club, at Chicago, January 29, 1909, at which 
I was a guest of honor ; at the annual banquet of the Kansas 
Day Club in Washington, January 29, 1912, or 191 3, Judge 
L. Stillwell, of Erie, Kansas, being able to establish the date, 
I think. I have been informed that it has been used as place 
cards by the Kansas Day Club of New York City. 

"The Call of Kansas" will be found in a book published by 
Mr. E. C. Manning, at one time president of the State Histori- 
cal Society, among other poems therein cited by him ; and he 
gives my name as the author. 

"The Call of Kansas," with my name as the author, has 
been printed and reprinted in almost every paper in Kansas, as 
well as in the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City Journal, the 
Chicago Record-Herald, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The 
Earth, (the colonization journal of the Atchison, Topeka and 
Santa Fe Railway, with offices at Chicago, Illinois.) I have 
clippings which can be verified by the files of the State Histori- 
cal Society which show that it has been printed, and, in many 
cases, reprinted in the following Kansas papers: The Topeka 
Capital, the Topeka State Journal, the Topeka Herald, (now 
defunct). The Lawrence Gazette, The Chanute Tribune, the El- 
Dorado Republican, the Erie Sentinel, (at the time that paper 
was edited by Mrs. E. F. Ridgeley), the Hutchinson News, the 
Hutchinson Gazette, the Wichita Eagle, the Wilson County Cit- 
izen, the Independence Times, the Western Spirit, (Paola, B. J. 
Sheridan then editor), the Emporia Gazette, the Rural Home, 
(Thayer Kansas), the lola Register, the Garden City Telegram, 
the Manhattan Nationalist, the Kansas Agriculturalist, (pub- 
lished by the Kansas State Agricultural College, at Manhattan), 
the Western School Journal, the Pratt Republican, and many 
others which I do not now recall. Some of the Kansas papers, 
instead of using the title Mr. Brady gave the verses, and which 
is the real title, namely, "The Call of Karsas," printed the poem 
under the title "The Voice of the Prairie," and two that I have 
record of are the Topeka Herald and the Erie Sentinel — the 
Sentinel at that time being edited by Mrs. E. F. Ridgeley. How- 
ever, all the papers above mentioned have acknowledged me as 
the author of the poem, — if not at the time they first printed it, 
in complimentary editorials afterwards when my name became 
known as the author. 

Q. Have you ever recited "The Call of Kansas" in public, 
and if so, when, where and before what societies? 

A. I first recited the poem at the annual meeting of the 

(15) 



Women's Kansas Day Club, at Topeka, Kansas, January 29, 
1908, at the invitation of Mrs. Mary Vance Humphrey, the 
president of the club. Mrs. Humphrey's letter is filed with the 
Kansas State Historical Society. I recited it before the Kan- 
sas Day Club of Chicago, Illinois, January 29, 1909, at the in- 
vitation of Mr. L. J. Flint, the Secretary of the club, and Mr. 
George Nicholson, (Third Vice President of the Atchison, To- 
peka and Santa Fe Railway), the President of the Kansas Day 
Club of Chicago. The letters of Mr. Flint and Mr. Nicholson 
are on file with the State Historical Society. I recited the poem 
before the Kansas Authors' Club of Topeka, in February, 1914, 
by invitation of the Secretary, Mr. George P. Morehouse, and 
at the further request of Mrs. Margaret Hill McCarter, presi- 
dent of the club. I recited, by request of the old soldiers at 
Lawrence, Kansas, in the spring of 1910, if I recall the year 
correctly, *'The Call of Kansas," at the Court House in Law- 
rence. I have recited it before three diflferent reading clubs of 
Lawrence, Kansas, in the last five years. I recited it before a 
music club in Cherry vale, Kansas, in the spring of 1909, when 
I was a guest of the club with my friend, Miss Agnes Lapham, 
of Chicago, formerly of Chanute. I recited it at an informal 
gathering one Sunday afternoon at the home of Mr. Franklin 
H. Head, 2 Banks Street, Chicago, Illinois, in the fall df 1908, 
two of the distinguished guests present being Mr. John Vance 
Cheney, the author and poet, and Professor Frederick Starr, of 
the University of Chicago. 

Q. To what press, social or literary societies do you be- 
long? 

A. I belong to the State Editorial Association of Kansas, 
to the Third District Republican Publishers Association, (by 
courtesy, rather than as an active member since it is composed 
wholly, so far as I know, of men), the Quest (Reading) Club, 
of Chanute, Kansas, the Round Table (Reading) Club, of Law- 
rence, Kansas, and one church society, the Daughters of the 
King, of the Grace (Episcopal) Church of Chanute, Kansas. 

Q. Did you ever hear of any one else claiming to be the 
author of the poem "The Call of Kansas"? 

A. Not until the latter part of May, 1914, when Mr. W. E. 
Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, 
sent for me to come to Topeka and then showed me the cor- 
respondence he had been having with a Mr. T. J. Karr, of Gi- 
rard, Kansas, who claimed that his wife, Mrs. Emma Clark 
Karr, had written the poem known as "The Call of Kansas," in 
July or August, 1899, while in Los Angeles, and later printed 
it in the old Hutchinson Gazette sometime within the dates 
mentioned. 

Q. Had you any intimation, previous to seeing this cor- 

(16) 



respondence, that anv one else wavS then claiming to be the au- 
thor of "The Call o/ Kansas"? 

A. I had not. Sometime in April, 1914, I had received a 
letter from Mrs. S. Alice Haldeman, of Girard, Kansas, asking- 
me to write her, for the benefit of the ladies of her reading club 
who were interested in it, an account of how I came to write 
"The Call of Kansas". I have received many such requests from 
club women and reporters, as well as my friends, and I thought 
nothing of it, except to write it out in detail and send to Mrs. 
Haldemaru She did not mention, in her letter making the re- 
quest, that any doubt of my authorship existed among the ladies 
of her club, nor did she, in writing to thank me for the letter, 
mention the claims of Mrs. T. J. Karr. Nor did she mention 
either of these matters in a still later letter, dated April 18, 
1914, her seeming intention being to keep me in utter ignor- 
ance of the claims of Mrs. T. J. Karr until they had first been 
made public. It was, as I have said, in the latter part of May, 
1914, that Mr. W. E. Connelley first told me of Mrs. Karr's 
claims. As Mrs. Haldeman had always shown a most cordial 
and friendly interest in me in the irregular correspondence we 
had had in the last five years, I wrote her about the first of 
August, 1 9 14, asking her if she knew of the claims of Mrs. 
Karr, which were then being made public. In a letter from 
Mrs. Haldeman from Bar Harbor, Maine, dated August 13, 
1914, she acknowledges that she had known Mrs. T. J. Karr 
for several years, and that she knew of the claims of Mrs. Karr 
to the authorship of my poem "The Call of Kansas" zuhen she 
{Mrs. Haldeman) (wrote asking me to tell how I came to write 
it, 

Q. What have you written and published besides "The 
Call of Kansas," and the little book you have mentioned, "The 
Call of Kansas and Other Verses?" 

A. I have done newspaper work at different times since 
the year of the World's Fair at Chicago, 1893, when I wrote 
some letters for publication in the paper edited in Chanute by 
Mr. G. M. Dewey, now deceased. This paper later became The 
Chanute Tribune, but I think that it was called the Chanute 
Vidette or the Vidette-Times, in 1893. I wrote letters from the 
Exposition at St. Louis for the Chanute Trbune, at the sugges- 
tion of one of the editors, Mr. Herbert Cavaness. In 1906, I 
brought out a book of verse, through Crane and Company, of 
Topeka, entitled "Verses by a Commonplace Person", that being 
the name under which I had reported various local events for 
Mr. Brady's paper, the Lawrence World. For the last three or four 
years I have had one column a week in the Chanute Tribune, 
under the heading "From the Feminine Viewpoint." I have 
had some verse printed at various times in the Chicago InteT- 

(17) 



Ocean, the Youth's Companion, the Kansas City Star, for which 
the last two named have paid me well. The Kansas City Star 
recently accepted an article by me on Mr. F. D. Coburn, as did 
also the Drovers' Telegram, of Kansas City, Missouri. These 
were under my name as the author of ''The Call of Kan- 
sas" at the suggestion of the editors in each instance. 

Q. Did you ever receive any recognition as the author 
of "The Call of Kansas", other than that already mentioned, 
and if so, by whomi? 

A. I have letters filed with the State Historical Society 
from Hamlin Garland, the author, of Chicago, Lorado Taft, the 
sculptor, of Chicago, Mr. George R. Peck, formerly General 
Counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, Mr. 
Franklin H. Head, of Chicago, author of ''Shakespeare's In- 
somnia" and many other books of historical research, Miss Ida 
M. Tarbell, of the American Magazine, Eugene F. Ware, Jay E. 
House, of the Topeka Capital, Major Calvin I. Hood, of Em- 
poria (now deceased), Mr. W. R. Kercher, until recently Kansas 
editor of the Kansas City Journal in Topeka, Miss Nanon L. 
Herron, who, as president of the Women's Press Association of 
Kansas, invited me to be the guest of honor of that body in 
May 20, 19 10, at Topeka, and read my poem "The Call of Kan- 
sas". I have been recognized socially as the author of "The Call 
of Kansas," by ex-Governor Stubbs and the present Governor 
Hodges, by Attorney General John S. Dawson, Margaret Hill 
McCarter, (who quotes one verse of "The Call of Kansas" in 
her popular book "The Price of the Prairie," with my name at- 
tached), William Allen White, Walt Mason, (at whose house I 
have been a welcome guest, and from w'hom I have received 
numbers of letters and complimentary press notices), the late T. 
B. Murdock, the late John S. Gilmore, F. D. Coburn, who is 
among my warmest friends-. Professor John A. Lomax, of the 
University of Texas, author of "Cowboy Songs" and "The Old 
Mackenzie Trail", (a copy of the latter was sent me, with a very 
pleasant letter by the author) ; and former Governor E. W. Hoch 
and Mrs. Cora G. Lewis of the Board of Administration of the 
University of Kansas, have spoken to me at different times of 
my poem, in unstinted praise. Victor Murdock, Congressman 
from the Eighth District of Kansas, called on me at my office in 
Lawrence, in September, 1912, to express his appreciation of 
my poem, "The Call of Kansas." Miss Effiie Graham, of To- 
peka, author of "The Passin' On Party," came to call on me in 
the spring of 19 14 for the same purpose. I could extend the 
list over hundreds of Kansas people, more or less known. Mr. 
George R. Peck gave a banquet to Kansans and their wives re- 
siding in Washington, in the spring of 1908, for the sole pur- 
pose, as he afterwards told me, of reading to them my poem 
"The Call of Kansas." I have copies of poems, dedicated to me 

(18) 



as the author of the poem, from Mr. J. M. Cavaness, of Cha- 
nute, Kansas, Mr. Willard A. Wattles, of Wichita, Kansas, Miss 
Margaret Perkins, of 302 First Avenue East, Hutchinson, Kan- 
sas, and Mr. John Hinshaw, of Emporia, Kansas. I have also 
several clever parodies, all of which have appeared since 1907, 
and all of them have been published and republished in Kansas 
papers. One of these parodies, which had the widest circu- 
lation, was by a Calif ornian, and in his attached comments he 
refers to me as the author of the verses parodied. This parody 
was first sent to me by Mr. F. W. Brewster, of lola, who got 
it first hand from the parodist. Mr. Brewster's letter and the 
parody are filed with the State Historical Society. 

Q. What is your present occupation? 

A. I have charge of the club program work in the Uni- 
versity Extension Division of the University of Kansas, under 
Mr. F. R. Hamilton. 

Q. Did you copyright ''The Call of Kansas"? 

A. I did not think it of sufficient importance to copyright 
at the time I wrote it. As I understand the copyright laws, 
nothing can be copyrighted after it has once been printed, since 
the copyright has to be printed on the first published copy. 

Q. Have you anything further to say in connection with 
yourself as the author of ''The Call of Kansas"? 

A. I have only to say that the material filed by me with 
the Kansas State Historical Society will bear me out in all that 
I have said. 

ESTHER M. CLARK. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 8th day of Sep- 
tember, 1914. 

LILLIE M. CHILSON. 

(Seal.) Notary Public. 

My Commission expires January 13, 191 5. 



In the first publications of "The Call of Kansas" the fourth 
word from the beginning of the seventh line from the bottom 
was written "sprung." Miss Clark afterwards changed the word 
to "flung" for the reason that it expresses better sense, and soi 
it has been published for several years. 

The poem was named "The Call of Kansas" by Honorable 
J. L. Brady, editor of the Lawrence Journal, now Journal- World, 
as shown by a letter from Mr. Brady to Secretary Connelley, 
dated August 24th, 1914, as follows : 

"Miss Esther Clark sent me that poem early in May, 1907. 

(19) 



Immediately after reading it I wrote her a letter in California 
stating that she had unconsciously written a classic. She told me 
in her letter that it was a few lines from which I could under- 
stand her feelings at that time. But I saw in it a poem of great 
merit. After receiving her consent to publish it, I gave it the 
name of "The Call of Kansas," and published it in the Lawrence 
Journal, May 14, 1907. The poem> was at once acclaimed as the 
true embodiment of the Kansas spirit, and since that time you 
know its history. 

"Miss Clark did not seem to understand that she had writ- 
ten a great poem, but I did as soon as I read it, and it was giv- 
en to the world for the first time through the columns of our 
paper." 

The evidence filed by Miss Clark with the Kansas State 
Historical Society further shows that from the day the poem 
was first published it spread in popularity until it was read and 
praised not only in Kansas but in many cities and towns in the 
United States ; that it was published to the world by practically 
every literary society and organization in this State, and was 
made known and used at Day Clubs and banquets by Kansas 
people in several of the great cities of the United States ; that 
Miss Clark has been written to and entertained by many of the 
most prominent authors, writers and literary critics in Kansas 
and other states. Besides all this, very many thousands of 
cards containing this poem over Esther M. Clark's name, with 
a cut of her picture set in the heart of a sunflower on the cor- 
ner of the card, have been sold throughout the entire country 
in book stores and news stations including the Harvey eating 
house stations ; that several editions comprising many hundreds 
of copies of a little book entitled "The Call of Kansas and Oth- 
-^r Verses, by Esther Mary Clark", which book contains "The 
Call of Kansas" as a leader, have been sold everywhere. 

Practically all the newspapers in Kansas, and many leading 
papers and publications outside the state, have published and re- 
published the poem. 

It has been used by operators and speculators in their pros- 
pectuses, and by Insurance Companies in their advertising liter- 

(20) 



ature, and in very many other ways, all appealing to the true 
Kansas spirit, as expressed in **The Call of Kansas'." 

The authorship of the poem was not questioned by any one 
for eight years after its first publication to the world over the 
name of Esther M. Clark, and not until one certain Emma Clark 
Karr, wife of T. J. Karr, a lawyer in Girard, Kansas, in May, 
19 14, claimed that she is the author of the poem, alleging 
through her said husband and certain newspapers that in the 
summer of 1899 she visited Los Angeles, California, and while 
there wrote this poem, and that the same was first published in 
a paper called the Hutchinson Gazette in July or August, possi- 
bly September or October of the year 1899. 

Mrs. Karr also claims that she was unmarried when she 
wrote said poem and that her maiden name was Emma M. 
Clark, her initials being the same as those of Esther M. Clark; 
that she first wrote the poem in a letter to her mother who then 
resided in Hutchinson, Kansas ; that her mother handed said 
letter to a Mrs. Nettleton who had a son printer then working 
on the Hutchinson Gazette; that this son printer remembers set- 
ting up the poemi some time in the year 1899 o^ 1900, and thinks 
he made a mistake in setting the name of the author of the 
Doem as Esther Clark instead of Emma Clark. It is claimed by 
the Karrs (letter from T. J. Karr to Secretary William E. Con- 
nelley, dated May 15, 1914,) that the poem, alleged to have been 
published by Emma M. Clark, now Mrs. Karr, attracted no at- 
tention at the time it was published, and that the next time they 
heard of "The Call of Kansas" it was published in a Topeka 
paper in 1907 under the name of "The Voice of the Pararie," 
and that since that time it has been published extensively under 
various names ; that soon after its publication in the Topeka 
paper it appeared with the name of Esther M. Clark attached, 
and Mrs. Karr supposed it was a mistake, her maiden name be- 
ing Emma M. Clark ; that recently they had learned there is an 
Esther M. Clark who claims to be the author of the verses and 



(21) 



to have written them in 1907 ; that they wish to estabHsh the 
fact of the verses being published prior to 1907, and ask Mr. 
Connelley to assist them in doing so. The Karrs also suggest 
in this letter to Secretary Connelley that their poem may have 
been published in some other Hutchinson paper and that it 
might have been indexed in the Historical Society as "The Call 
of the Pararie/' or "The Voice of the Parmie," or some other 
name. 

Under date of June 9th, 1914, Mr. T. J. Karr writes to 
Secretary William E. Connelley that Mr. Dayhoff informs the 
Karrs of remembering having seen the original manuscript at 
the time it was written, and to have quoted from the same in 
various addresses which he delivered while in office, and Mr. 
Karr thinks it probable that a quotation from it may be found 
in some of the Dayhoff publications. 

Mr. W. E. Connelley, as Secretary of the Historical So- 
ciety, then demanded of the two claimants of authorship that 
each one should file with the Historical Society proof in support 
of their respective claims so that the general public might know 
all the facts and determine the true authorship of "The Call of 
Kansas." 

Esther M. Clark responded at once to this demand and 
filed with said Historical Societv her affidavit, made a part of 
this Brief, and very many letters and pap'^ers from distinguished 
writers, editors, authors, literary critics and others in support of 
her claim ; but Mrs. Emma Clark Karr, the other claimant to au- 
thorship, has filed nothing to this date. 

On September 24, 1914, The Girard Press, a newspaper 
published in Girard, Crawford County, Kansas, the home of 
Emma Clark Karr, published what purports to be an affidavit 
made by one I. L. Dayhofif, to the effect that in the summer of 
1899, while he was superintendent of Public Instruction for Reno 
County, Kansas, he went to Los Angeles, California, with a par- 
ty of teachers to attend the National Teachers' Association 



(22) 



which met there that year; that in the party was a young lady 
by the name of Emma M. Clark, who lived in the city of Hutch- 
inson, and was a teacher in the schools of South Hutchinson; 
that while in the City of Los Angeles on said trip, and some- 
time in the month of July, 1899, the said Emma M. Clalrk read 
to him the poem entitled "The Call of Kansas," a copy of which 
poem 's attached to Affidavit and rnarked "Exhibit A" ; that he 
examined said poem at said time and place ; that he read it sev- 
eral times and committed a part of it to memory ; that said poem 
very much impressed him, and that he has a very clear recollec- 
tion of the incident and poem ; that when he first saw said poem, 
which was at said time and place, it was written in the hand 
writing of the said Emma Clark, and she claimed to have writ- 
ten it at said time and place ; that he was State SuperintendeiLt 
of Public Instruction for Kjansas from January, 1903, to Janu- 
ary, 1907 ; that in delivering various addresses, both political and 
educational, during his political career he quoted from said poem 
very frequently ; 

That the said Emma M. Clark is now Mrs. Emma M. Clark 
Karr, and resides in the City of Girard, Crawford County, Kan- 
sas. 

This alleged Affidavit purports to have been sworn to be- 
fore Thomas P. Higgins, Notary Public, on the i8th day of 
May, 1914, but there is no indication on the paper that Mr. Hig- 
gins, as such Notary, impressed his Official Seal upon this doc- 
ument; and nothing to show just where Mr. Higgins does his 
Official business, excepting that the paper is headed State of 
Kansas, County of Wyandotte. 

T. J. Karr, husband of Emma Clark Karr, recently visited 
the State Historical Society rooms in Topeka, and he claimed 
to Mr. W. E. Connelley, Secretary of the Historical Society, 
that he had with him the original Dayhoff affidavit, but refused 
to file it with said Secretary. 

Practically all of the leading newspapers in the State of 



(23) 



Kansas have expressed themselves thoroughly in support of Es- 
ther M. Clark's claim of authorship. Many of these papers, in- 
cluding The Chanute Tribune, The Law^rence Journal-World, 
Hutchinson Gazette, Lawjrence Gazette, and the Emporia Ga- 
zette, have produced the strongest of arguments to show that 
the said Karrs and said Dayhoff are not only unworthy of con- 
fidence and belief, but deserve severe punishment for attempting 
to perpetrate such a fraud. 



ARGUMENT 

The poet Gay expressed a universal sentiment when he sang 

"I hate the man who builds his name 
On ruins of another's fame." 

It is this sentiment that has caused the press generally, and 
honest, intelligent people everywhere to rise up with condemna- 
tion for these false and fraudulent actors in the literary world. 

If this case were one in Court the burden of proof would 
rest wholly upon Mrs. Karr, but her allegations, as set forth in 
certain newspapers, are so void of truth, and so reprehensible, 
that Miss Clark cannot be blamed for sending to the Historical 
Society volumes of the most convincing proof of her authorship 
immediately following the demand of the Secretary of the His- 
torical Society that both parties send in their proofs of author- 
ship at once. 

The man Dayhoff claims in his purported affidavit that he 
read the original manuscript of "The Call of Kansas," by Emma 
M. Clark, in Los Angeles, California, in the month of July, 1899. 
But Honorable J. L. Brady, editor of the Lawrence Journal- 
World, testifies that he named Esther M. Clark's poem ''The Call 
of Kansas," and so published it to the world May 14, 1907. This 
was eight years after Dayhoflf says he saw it in Los Angeles, 
California. 

(24) 



Who is I. L. Dayhoff ? He says he is an ex-superintendent 
of Public Instruction for Reno County, Kansas, and an ex-s-tate 
superintendent of Public Instruction for Kansas ; that he was 
such state officer from January, 1903, to January, 1907. This 
is true, but the reputation Dayhoff sustains seems not to be con- 
fined strictly within the educational and political worlds. 

Case No. 24235, Shawnee County District Court, is entitled 
Ella S. Burton, plaintiff, vs. I. L. Dayhoff, defendant. It is bas- 
ed on scandalous matter published by said Dayhoff in a paper 
known as "The Kansas Educator" and against the good name 
and reputation of Mrs. Ella S. Burton, a very prominent woman 
in Topeka and throughout the State of Kjansas. 

The verdict of the jury in this case reads as follows : 

"The State of Kansas, Shawnee County. 

In the District Court, Third Judicial District. 

Ella S. Burton, Plaintiff, 

vs. No. 24235. 

I. L. Dayhoff, Defendant. 

VERDICT. 
We, the Jury, impanelled and sworn in the above entitled 
case, do, upon our oaths, find for the plaintiff, and assess her 
damages at Three Thousand Dollars, ($3,000). 

(Signed) J. A. COULTER. 
Filed February 6, 1908." 

This judgment was affirmed by the Kansas Supreme Court 
on December 10, 1909. The Mandate of such affirmation was 
duly transmitted to the Clerk of said Shawnee County District 
Court and the same was spread upon the records thereof under 
the order of said District Court. Filed January 8, 1 910. 

According to Dayhoff, Emma M. Clark, now Emma Clark 
Karr, was a school teacher in South Hutchinson in 1899, and 
she was one of the pafty of Kansas school teachers to accom- 
pany him to the National Teachers' Association which met in 
Los Angeles in that year ; that they went to Los Angeles on this 
trip in the month of July, and it was at that time and place Em- 
ma Clark Karr wrote the famous poem, "The Call of Kansas." 

(25) 



Under this statement the poem was written over fourteen years 
ago by a Kansas school teacher, presumably out for a good time 
in vacation, along with many other teachers attending a Nation- 
al Teachers' Association in one of the most attractive cities in 
the world. A young lady who could become homesick enough 
under such circumstances to produce "The Call of Kansas" is a 
marvel indeed. But the Dayhofif statement shows that he and 
Mrs. Karr have been friends and acquaintances for more than 
fourteen years last past; and just why they should remain ton- 
gue-tied and dumb for over eight years while Esther M. Clark 
was reaping the glory and pro-fit from being the acknowledged 
auihor of "The Coil of Kansas'' in every home, hamlet, village 
and city in the State of Kansas, and in many other cities and 
towns in the United States, is beyond the comprehension and 
belief of anyone having good sense. 

A little more light on Mr. Dayhoff comes through an arti- 
cle in the Hutchinson Gazette of September 30, 1914. It will 
be remembered that Mrs. Karr claims her "Call of Kansas" was 
first published in the Hutchinson Gazette in July, August, Sep-, 
tember, or October of 1899. The recent Gazette article is as 
follows : 

"AN INCONSEQUENTIAL AFFIDAVIT." 
It has been the misfortune of the Gazette to have its name 
taken in vain numerous times in the Cook-Peary controversy 
that is now raging over Kansas prairies with reference to the 
authorship of Kansas's finest poem — "The Call of Kansas". 

The Gazette has been placed rather in the position of the 
Esquimo with his gumdrops and ice-locked records' — its columns 
are alleged to contain back in the years 1899-1900 the so-called 
original poem, as written by the lady who was once a Hutchin- 
son school teacher. The gumdrops have worked their soothing 
influence and the ice-locked records have been opened up and 
the Gazette, speaking in the interest of truth and without the 
slightest desire to injure anyone's reputation or hurt anyone's 
feelings, must testify that the records do not disclose the facts 
they are alleged to contain. 

"The Call of Kansas" was not printed in the Gazette during 
the years mentioned. So far as The Gazette has been able to 
ascertain, it was not printed at that date in any other Hutchin- 
son newspaper, either. It was given publicity in the Hutchinson 

(26) 



papers of along about the time it was printed in numerous pa- 
pers throughout the state, some eight years later. 

However, it was- not for this reason that The Gazette 
speaks. A search of The Gazette files at the rooms of the State 
Historical Library at Topeka would have disclosed these facts. 
What the Gazette is concerned about is the testimony of a cer- 
tain formerly of Hutchinson citizen, who has arisen from his 
political grave, discarded his shroud and butted into this con- 
troversy. The individual referred to is Insley L. Dayhoff, one 
time County Superintendent of Reno County and later State 
Superintendent of Kansas, but now happily resident in another 
state. The aforementioned Dayhoff has filed an affidavit pur- 
porting to state that he had heard and read and used the poem 
in public addresses as early as 1899- 1900 — seven years before any- 
one else ever heard of it — and that he knew the circumstances 
of its authorship in California during the first of that pair of 
years. The Gazette knows Dayhoff and in common with other 
Hutchinson acquaintances of his marvels that anything he might 
say should be considered evidence. 

And The Gazette voices its protest. Insley L. DayhoflF hav- 
ing suffered a proper, even if too tardy political end. The Ga- 
zette protests that even his shade should be paraded before Kan- 
sas's vision to remind a temporarily deluded people of the one 
time folly. When a mian of Dayhoff's stripe confers the one 
favor on the State of which he is capable by removing from its 
borders, the person who is responsible for the return even of his 
ghost is deserving of the severest censure. And when of neces- 
sity every mention of his name re-awakens the memory that he 
once afflicted Hutchinson with his presence, the offense is the 
greater. 

Still the Gazette would not deny even a Dayhoff his dues. 
Had he never been Superintendent of Reno County, it is ppssi- 
ble that the County would never have adopted the sensible course 
of ignoring political partisanship in the election of the director 
of its rural, as well as its city schools." 



The Historical Society is a great state Institution governed 
by State Laws. Among very many duties it has to perform is 
that of collecting and filing away all books, maps, charts, papers 
and other materials as will facilitate the investigation of histori- 
cal, scientific, social, educational and literary subjects, and, in 
this respect it becomes a filing depository for all newspapers 
published in the State of Kansas. The law makes it the duty 
of the Secretary of the Society to see that this is done ; and any- 

(27) 



one is respectfully invited to investigate and examine anything 
and everything contained in the Historical building, subject to 
the rules of the Society. "The Call of Kansas" having become 
recognized by the literary world as a classic, and having b^en 
published in some of our State Text Books as a classic, to the 
credit of Esther M. Clark, with this controversy pending before 
the public, the Secretary of the Historical Society had a perfect 
right and it was his duty to demand of the two claimants of au- 
thorship to said poem their proofs thereof. Esther M. Clark 
responded at once to this demand, but the Karrs, up to this date, 
have offered no proofs whatever. All discussions of this ques- 
tion are based upon the substantial proofs submitted by Miss 
Clark, on the one hand, and the unfounded, untruthful and su- 
premely ridiculous statements made by the Karrs to certain in- 
dividuals and certain newspapers, on the other hand. Possibly, 
Mrs. Emma Clark Karr sometime wrote rhymes on Kansas ; 
none have been found so far in the Historical Society. If she 
ever did, they attracted no attention in the general public. She 
thinks she may have called some of her rhymes "The Call of 
the Pararie;" or, "The Voice of the Pararie" but the Historical 
Society fails to find them. Any intelligent and educated person 
of this date would very seriously doubt the ability of any one 
using the Karr spelling to write a classic poem, no matter 
what "explination" they may make of it. 

Mrs. Karr's admission that her poem attracted no attention 
at first is strong proof against her claim for authorship. As said 
by William Allen White: 

"It would be impossible for a poem of such beauty to ap- 
pear anywhere in Kansas and escape notice. Kansans are quick 
to appreciate any good thing about Kanlsas, and "The Call of 
Kansas" is so exceptional in its quality that if it had appeared in 
1899 it would have been a Kansas classic before 1907, when it 
appeared first in the Lawrence Journal. Moreover, the Journal 
offers $100 for any one to produce any publication oif any kind 
containing "The Call of Kansas" before the date when it ap- 
peared in the Lawrence Journal and was instantly accepted." 



(28) 



The Chanute Tribune duplicated the offer made by the Law- 
rence Journal- World, and still others have stated that they would 
add to these generous offers for any substantial proof that Em- 
ma Clark Karr produced "The Call of Kansas." 

November 4th, 19 14, the Lawrence Daily Journal-World 
gave out the following statement: 

"NOTHING DOING. 

"Some four months ago the Journal-World offered a cash 
reward for any one who would disprove the authorship of the 
poem entitled "The Call of Kansas", which has always been 
credited to Miss Esther Clark. 

"So far there is not a single claimant. Every effort has 
been made to obtain proof to the contrary, but nothing has been 
forth coming. It is time for the controversy to end. Miss Es- 
ther Clark did write the poem\, and the other wonum who claims 
the authorship is a common fakir. 

"This paper has decided to withdraw the offer of reward 
and call the question closed. 

"We have given the widest possible circulation to the mat- 
ter, and outside papers have taken it up and sent it all over the 
country. It is not possible that there can be a mistake. 

"We are glad the controversy has arisen. We are glad that 
the authorship has been questioned. It has been annoying to Miss 
Clark Oif course, but it has served to call attention to the merits 
of her work and the splendid poem has been read many times 
anew. 

"Miss Esther Clark contributed this classic to the literature 
of Kansas and it is now time for the cheap fakirs to turn their 
attention to other lines." 

On the other hand, the evidence shows that immediately 
after the first publication of the poem in the Lawrence Journal, 
May 14, 1907, intense interest in it was manifested throughout 
the whole country and many of Esther Clark's friends and 
acquaintances recognized her at once in "The Call of Kansas," 
and made inquiries to establish their opinions as to the author- 
ship; and all this before the name of Esther M. Clark was 
given to the world as the author. 

Mrs. R. C. Anderson of Chanute, immediately phoned to 
Miss Clark's mother asking if it were not true that Esther 
wrote the poem. 

(29) 



Mrs. L. S. Dodds oi Lawrence, Kansas, wrote to Miss 
Clark, June ii, 1907: 

"Dear Esther: — For a long time I have wanted to tell you 
how much I love you for writing ''The Call of Kansas." I 
knew at once who wrote it and I had to call up Mrs. Prentice 
and felicitate with her. When Caryl came in I read it to him 
and he too guessed the author and liked the work." 

Mr. E. E. Kelley, editor of the Toronto Republican, has 

recently spoken through his paper as follows: 

"Personally, our vote is given for Esther M. Clark. Back 
in the early 90's she wao a student in High School and the 
writer of this paragraph was her teacher for about three years. 
We never had a more perverse laggard in a geometry class 
nor a more brilliant student in English literature and rhetoric. 
Somewhere about the shack we still have copies of her verse, 
written before she was seventeen, which is good poetry and 
strikingly original. We think we know Esther Mary's style 
and sing in verse, and recall vividly when we first read "The 
Call of Kansas" in the Star. It was credited to the Lawrence 
Journal. We read it through three times and said we'd bet a 
coonskin Esther Clark wrote it — her monogram was broidered 
all over it. This may not be competent evidence, but we are 
satisfied with it, and have voted Honorable Brady to be a fine 
old Angora for butting in with his little old hundred plunks." 

William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State His- 
torical Society, is one of the most noted Kansas authors and 
one of the well known authors of the United States. Some of 
his books are in the best libraries in the world. In a personal 
letter written by him to Miss Katharine Lasley, one oif the 
editors of the Hutchinson Gazette, under date October 28, 1914, 
Mr. Connelley states: 

"I wish to say that I have known Miss Clark since 1903. 
She did quite a good deal of work for me when I was in 
business in Chanute. I had every opportunity to become well 
acquainted with her and to determine whether she was con- 
scientious in her work or not. I wish to say that I never knew 
a more conscientious girl. I have often remonstrated with her 
for re- writing a whole page to eliminate some error made by 
the typewriter. She is absolutely honest in thought and action. 
She has the most delicate sense of honor. She is absolutely 
incapable of injuring any one in thought or action. She would 

(30) 



no more think of committing plagiarism than she would any 
other theft. I never knew a girl of higher character. I have 
no doubt whatever that she wrote ''The Call of Kansas" I 
know her manner of writing and her manner of thought and 
her viewpoint of things in general. Her poem corresponds to 
all these things. It is her style, her view, her way of expressing 
herself. It is stamped with her individuality. I am sure no 
other person could write this poem. It might be imitated, but 
the spirit and soul would be wanting. Every writer has a 
personality and an individuality which must show and always 
does show in every production. When I s2iw''The Call of 
Kansas" I knew just as well that she had written it as I knew 
when afterward she told me she had written it." 

Mr. Connelley's long acquaintance with Esther Clark, and 
his scholarship and ability as a great writer, put his judgment 
on this question beyond any doubt or criticism. 

Every word in "The Call of Kansas" breathes the deep, 
poetic spirit of Esther M. Clark. This- was recognized at once 
not only by her personal friends in Kansas, but by great authors 
and literary people in other states. 

Franklin H. Head, capitalist, scholar and author, of Chicago, 
in a letter dated December 20, 1907, writes to Miss Clark con- 
cerning "The Call of Kansas" 'as follows: 

"I have read and re-read it with constantly increasing ap- 
preciation and award it the record of much the finest new poem 
of the current year. 

"It is beautiful in every way ; in verbal felicity, in construc- 
tion, in its beautiful refrain, in its appreciation of the phases 
of the ocean's life, and in its great poetic power. 

''You give to California all that her devotees claim, but 
without affecting your Kansas loyalty." 

The following is from George R. Peck, once a noted Kan- 
san and head of the legal department of the entire Atchison, 
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway System, and for many years 
recognized as one of the greatest lawyers in the United States, 
and an author of wonderful brilliancy and ability. In a letter 
to Miss Clark dated December 9, 1907, he states: 

"I found on my desk this morning your letter of December 

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6, together with the beautiful volume of verses and the noble 
tribute to Kansas which I mentioned in my letter to Mr. 
Cavaness, for all of which I give you sincere thanks. 

"Indeed, Miss Clark, you must pardon me for doubting that 
you are a "commonplace person." The verses in the volume 
show high poetic talent, and "The Call of Kansas" is nothing 
less than a work of genius. It was first sent to me by a friend, 
in a newspaper clipping, and I could not fail to recognize its 
beauty and its strength. I have carried it in my pocketbook 
ever since, and frequently, at dinners and other social occasions, 
after listening to the recitations of others, have given them 
your poem. It never fails to be received with great applause. 
In due time I hope to see it in a volume of your poems." 

Ida M. Tarbell under date May 6, 1908, writes: 

"My dear Miss Clark: — Thank you very much for sending 
me a copy of "The Call of Kansas." It is all your Kansas 
friends said about it, a beautiful expression of genuine emo- 
tion. I am very glad to have it." 

Hamlin Garland, one of America's most noted authors, 
writes under date December 29, 1907: 

"Dear Miss Clark: — A friend handed me, the other day, a 
copy of your poem "The Call of Kansas," and I liked it so 
much I want to send you a word of congratulation on having 
voiced so musically its homesick Kansan. I hope you will do 
many more equally beautiful lines. From very point of view 
these verses are worthy. With holiday greetings I am very 
sincerely. Yours, 

"HAMLIN GARLAND." 

Our own immortal Eugene Ware wrote November 5, 1907: 

"My dear Miss Clark : — Your book of verses came to hand. 
I have read them and my wife has read them and we like them 
very much. Your Kansas verses, written out at Long Beach, 
California, were most elegant, and although they appeared 
anonymously I cut them out of the paper and went to work to 
try to find the author, and I was very glad that you appeared. 
The verses had a remarkable run and well they might, because 
they were of unsual merit. It happens to us in this world that 
we cannot sit down and write meritorious stuff to order, but it 
must come in an accidental way and in an opportune time. And 
then the world recognizes the merit and preserves the verses." 



(32) 



But it was not alone with great authors and Hterary people 
that "The Call of Kansas" aroused at first the deep sentiment of 
poetic appreciation. The greatness of this poem consists in its 
ability to touch the mind and heart of every loyal, patriotic 
citizen of any State and Country. 

An old gentleman in Lincoln, Illinois, June lo, 1907, wrote 
to a friend of his in Lawrence, Kansas : 

"Dear Lou : — Tell your friend Esther Clark that an old 
man in Illinois who has a chunk of sentiment as big as a 
Colorado boulder in his composition sends her his love. 

"Man as I am I would rather be the author of her poem, 
"The Call of Kansas," than to be President of the United 
States. 

"When I read the first verse I was charmed. When I read 
the second verse I was bewitched with its sentiment and the 
beauty and strength of its description. When I read the third 
verse, — I cried and I couldn't help it. 

"Somehow I pity the man or woman who wouldn't be 
lifted off their feet by it. It is one of the finest and tenderest 
expressions of love and devotion that I ever read. 

"It represents the kind of loyalty that nerved the men of 
both armies during the Civil War to endure all the trials and 
sacrifices of the camp, and impelled them in battle after battle, 
year after year, where "grinning death with reeking jaws held 
bloody carnival." 

"I hope Miss Clark may live a long: and happy life, but she 
may be sure that her little poem will long outlive her. 

"Yours very truly, 

^^C. E. ROSS." 

T. J. Karr, husband of Emma Clark Karr, claims in a letter 
dated May 15, 1914, to the Secretary of the Historical Society 
that "Mrs. Karr has more proof of authorship than Miss Clark 
has." Where is it? The combined efforts of the Karrs, their 
friends, the Historical Society, and various other interested 
individuals have failed to find anywhere, in any publication 
whatever, the slightest evidence of any printed copy of "The 
Call of Kansas,"or any other verses on Kansas, zvritten by 
Bmma M. Clark, or Bmma Clark Karr, prior to May 14, 1907, 
when the real poem, ''The Call of Kansas," zvas published to 
the world by the Lawrence Journal. 

(33) 



In their letter dated June 9, 1914, to the Secretary of the 
Historical Society, the Karrs suggest that their poem may be 
found in some of the educational journals published during the 
Dayhoff administration. The Secretary of the Society then had 
the Dayhoff publications unboxed and examined, with the 
result of finding one poem on Kansas written by Frank Leo 
Pinnet, and one on homesickness by Catherine Key Zeigler, 
but in no respect like ''The Call of Kansas." With these ex- 
ceptions, the Historical Society found nothing pertaining to the 
subject. 

The important question as to why the Karrs and Mr. Day- 
hoff were silent all these years comes into the mind of every- 
one. The Chanute Tribune puts it to the public as follows : 

"Consider, Kansas people, for you are the real jury in this 
astounding case, a few of the things the Honorable Dayhoff 
would have you believe. He says he read this greatest Kansas 
poem in 1899. He committed parts of it to memory. He used 
it quite frequently in public addresses. During this time he 
was in public office four years. He basked in the limelight. 
Unless different from the average public official, which all know 
he was not, he furnished the press with copies of his speeches. 
As State Superintendent he talked to the leading educators and 
literary folk of Kansas. As State Superintendent he would be 
supposed to be something of a judge of literary matters. All 
this he asks sane people to beh'eve, although ''The Call of 
Kansas" did not appear in print until 1907, and there is no 
record of the Kansas ptiblic ever hearing of it before that date, 
and the added fact that a month after it appeared in the Law- 
rence Journal in 1907 nearly every Kansan knew it by heart. 
For eight long years from 1899 to 1907, the Honorable Dayhoff 
says he had this poem in his posession and memory, a poem 
that thrilled the Kansas soul at first sight, a poem that on its 
first appearance not only burdened Esther M. Clark's mail with 
letters of praise from innumerable Kansans, but from scores of 
literary people whose names are National household words, and 
yet this Kansas educator never considered it worth zMle to 
give it to the press. True he says he used it "quite frequently" 
in his lectures, but if he had, why didn't some of his intelligent 
hearers remember it when the poem came out, and say some- 
thing about it, and why didn't it get in print? If the Honorable 
Dayhoff used this poem in his speeches "quite frequently," as 
he glibly says, it can no more have been kept out of print than 
that rows can keep their tails quiet in flv time. 

(34) 



"Nor is the above all the moonshine Honorable Dayhoff 
asks us to believe. He wants us, also, to swallow this : that al- 
though he knew who the real author was, that although he was 
neither deaf or dumb, or blind and couldn't help knowing that 
Esther M. Clark of Chanute was gett'ng credit on all hands for 
writing the greatest Kansas poem, before 1907 passed into his- 
tory, that although the Girard lady was a friend of his, and if 
she wrote the poem should have had the credit, yet he waited 
seven long years before coming to her defense. Nor did he even 
write to his Girard friend under the supposition that it was she 
over whom all the furor was being made, for the lady herself 
testifies that she knew nothing about it until a year or two ago. 

"So much for the star witness. If his affidavit was not so 
palpably idiotic it would be a serious matter, but so supremely 
absurd is it, so sublimely ridiculous, so vacuously thin, that one 
cannot do ought but laugh at the way it leaves the Honorable 
Dayhoff dangling alongside of Doc Cook." 



Possibly Mrs. Karr some time wrote some alleged verses 
on Kansas. If she ever did, they attracted no attention what- 
ever, according to her own admission. If she ever did, where 
are they? Where is that alleged poem the printer Nettleton 
claims he made a mistake on over fourteen years ago by credit- 
ing it to Esther instead of Emma? The newspaper office files, 
the Historical Society files, and the Mrs. Karr files are all 
short this issue. Undoubtedly, as Walt Mason suggests, it "went 
up to heaven in a chariot of fire." 

It is reported from Hutchinson that said printer, after 
having carefully examined said files recently and finding noth- 
ing to the credit of the Girard woman, remarked that "the 
disputed Emma Clark poem must have been crowded from the 
pages." 

"These lies are like the father that begets them ; 
Gross as a mountain, open, palpable." 

Hundreds of people have written on Home, Sweet Home, 
in both prose and rhyme ; but there never has been more than 
one real poem on "Home, Sweet Home," and only one John 
Howard Payne. 

Thousands of people have written in both prose and poetry 

•(35) 



on the wonders of our great Republic, and some have seen *'the 
glory of the coming of the Lord ;" but there never has been 
written more than one "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and 
never lived but one Julia Ward Howe. 

The State of Kansas has had, has now and, likely, always 
will have, famous authors in both prose and poetry, but never 
more than one whose poetic soul could give so full expression 
to the deep, inspirational and loyal sentiment of the true Kansan 
as in ''The Call of Kansas ;" and this State has only one Esther 
M. Clark. 

Every author has an expression in writing peculiar to him- 
self, and is never misjudged by anyone familiar with it. It 
characterizes all his literary works. This is especially true in 
the poetic writings of Esther M. Clark. The same sweet, pure 
strain of spirit force runs through all of it. Anyone having 
any literary instinct, and who is familiar with Esther M. Clark's 
writings, could not fail to recognize her true poetic spirit in 
"The Call of Kansas". 

There are rhymers and there are poets. It is one thing to 
make a jingle and another thin^ to touch the soul with poetic 
sentiment Judging from the few rhymes of Emma Clark Karr, 
now being considered by the general reading public, it is rea- 
sonable to believe that she never has produced, and never will 
produce, a real poem, not mentioning a classic. The mind that 
produced "When Johnnie Joined the Game" never could pro- 
duce "The Call of Kansas." 

The fact that Mrs. Karr has had some of her rhymes pub- 
lished in newspapers is no evidence of poetic ability. The author 
of this criticism has written volumes of jingle, some of it find- 
ing way into metropolitan papers and being widely copied ; 
but he never has written one line of real poetry, and it is not 
likely he ever will do so in this manifestation. 

Esther M. Clark is the author of "The Call of Kansas," or 
she is all that Senator Brady hurled into the faces of the Karrs 



(36) 



recently through the Lawrence Journal-World. The history and 
record of this case prove most conclusively that Senator Brady 
is right. 

One of the greatest of religious writers has said : 

''Uinimproved opportunities will rebuke us when we attempt 
to claim the benefits of an experience we have not made our 
own, try to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to 
enter unlawfully into the labors of others" 

Why does Mrs. Karr refuse to come forward with her 
friend Dayhoff and make a sworn statement covering all she 
has to say in regard to her alleged production of "The Call of 
Kansas" and file the same with the State Historical Society, as 
did Esther M. Clark? 

Where has she been during the last seven years that she 
never saw "The Call of Kansas" in print until last Christmas, 
when she discovered that its opening stanza was quoted by 
Margaret Hill McCarter in ''The Price of the Prairie," and the 
authorship of the poem was there credited to Esther M. Clark? 
She had been a school teacher, a club woman and ardent suf- 
frage worker, an alleged literary woman who, according to 
some of her friends, had written "many beautiful poems," and, 
presumably, a reader fairly well acquainted with what goes on 
in Kansas. "The Call of Kansas" has been printed and re- 
printed in this State thousands of times since it was first pub- 
lished by the Lawrence Journal, May 14, 1907. Every bright, 
intelligent school child in the State of Kansas within the last 
seven years has known "The Call of Kansas" by heart, and has 
loved Esther M. Clark for being its author. 

Miss Clark has placed on record a letter from a prominent 
Girard woman containing the statement that the book "The Call 
of Kansas and Other Verses," by Esther Mary Clark, has been 
"her constant companion and enjoyed by all her friends," and 
among the dearest of these she claims Mrs. Karr, says that 
Mrs. Karr has been her dear friend ever since she came to Girard 
a bride. And yet, up to last Christmas she had not seen the 

(37) 



poem in print, nor heard of Esther Clark. And though Mrs. 
Karr had been married ten years she never had told her hus- 
band anything about her authorship of the poem until then, 
when she said to him "I am sorry I let that poem get away 
from me." 

Why is Mr. Dayhoff, and why are the Karr people, careful 
not to file the alleged Dayhoff affidavit, or any other sworn 
statement, with the State Historical Society? The great State 
of Kansas is back of the Society, and the interests of Mrs. Karr 
and all others will always be most fully protected. 

The evidence shows that when Esther M. Clark wrote "The 
Call of Kansas" she was a homesick girl in the city of Los 
Angeles, California in the mjonth of May, 1907. She had 
acquired some literary reputation locally and had put out a 
book of poems entitled "Verses by a Commonplace Person," 
which had attracted some attention in the literary world; but 
she was not generally known as an author. She was employed 
in a printing office on Spring Street in Los Angeles as a proof 
reader and had become woefully homesick for Kansas. She 
states in her affidavit filed with the Historical Society that she 
was suffering from the most severe attack of homesickness she 
had ever experienced. "It was in one sleepless night," she says, 
"that the line, 'The Voice of the prairie calling me,' first came 
to me, as a single line always does, in every poem I have ever 
written. I worked on it that night and off and on for several 
nights after that, and took down what I had composed on a 
typewriter that I kept in the parlor of the house." 

Under such conditions her very soul cried out, 

"Dearer the sight of a shy, wild rose by the roadside's dusty way 
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields, ablaze in the sun of May." 

How different were the circumstances under which Emma 

Clark Karr was placed. She had been teaching school in South 

Hutchinson; the National Teachers' Association was meeting 

in Los Angeles, California, and it was the month of July. 

Thousands of teachers were there ; a bunch of teachers from 

(38) 



Kansas^ chaperoned by Brother Dayhoff, attended this great 
convention ; Emma M. Clark was in the bunch ; it was in vaca- 
tion, and all of the teachers, presumably, were out for a good 
time in this most interesting citv and country. Everything was 
new and interesting; doubtless, all the teachers felt somewhat 
hilarious ; there was "something to go to" every day and every 
night. And yet, under all such circumstances, Emma M. Clark, 
teacher from Hutchinson, Kansas, one of the Dayhoff bunch, 
became so desperately homesick that she sat down and produced 
"The Call of Kansas" in a letter to her mother. And this was 
done in the month of July after all the poppies "ablaze in the 
sun of May" were faded and gone. 

"Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are 
To this vice of lying." 



m 



For the purpose of giving opportunity of comparing the 
rhymes of Mrs. Clark-Karr with real poetry, the verses en- 
titled "Since Johnnie Joined the Game," by Emma Clark Karr, 
followed by "The Call of Kansas," by Esther M. Clark, are 



here given: 



SINCE JOHNNIE JOINED THE GAME. 

I used to scoff at baseball lore 

And called it waste of time. 
But that was many months before 

My son began to climb, 
No more I scorn the sturdy play. 

And this is how it came, 
My prejudice all fell away 

When Johnnie joined the game. 

The third grade boys played ball at noon, 

The fourth resented that; 
They organized a nine and soon 

My boy had bought a bat. 
The "Honor Brights" they call the team. 

Their suits are red as flame; 
I live their life and dream their dream 

Since Johnnie joined the game. 

Since hfe has grown so fair and wide 

I turn from "Household Hints," 
With sonny standing by my side, 

I read the "Diamond Glints" 
And when we say our prayers at nights 

We don't forget to name 
The fourth grade team of "Honor Brights" 

Since Johnnie joined the game. 

Bmma Clark Karr. 



(40) 



THE CALL OF KANSAS. 

Surfeited here with beauty, and the sensuous-sweet perfume 
Borne in from a thousand gardens and orchards of orange bloom ; 
Awed by the silent mountains, stunned by the breakers' roar — 
The restless ocean pounding and tugging away at the shore — 
I lie on the warmi sand beach and hear, above the cry of the sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, 

Calling me. 

Sweeter to me than the salt sea spray, the fragrance of summer 

rains ; 
Nearer my heart than these mighty hills are the windswept 

Kansas plains ; 
Dearer the sight of a shy, wild rose by the roadside's dusty way 
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields, ablaze in the sun of May. 
Gay as the bold poinsettia is, and the burden of pepper trees, 
The sunflower, tawny and gold and brown, is richer to me than 

these. 
And rising ever above the song of the hoarse, insistent sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, 

Calling me. 

Kansas, beloved Mother, today in an alien land, 

Yours is the name I have idly traced with a bit of wood in the 

sand. 
The name that, flung from a scornful lip, will make the hot 

blood start; 
The name that is graven, hard and deep, on the core of my loyal 

heart. 
O higher, clearer and stronger yet, than the boom of the savage 

sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, 

Calling me. 



Long Beach, Cat. Esther M. Clark. 

May, 1907. 



(41) 



Following *'The Call of Kansas," are three of Esther M. 
Clark's more recent poems, given to show that every word she 
writes in verse is a noble expression of that same tender, poetic 
spirit so distinctly characteristic in "The Call of Kansas." 

THE STARS ABOVE MOUNT OREAD. 

We walked across the hill one night. 

One summer night, O long ago ! 
And watched each timid valley light 

Peer through the darkness down below. 
When suddenly he raised his head 

In that quick, boyish way he had : 
"There are no stars like these," he said, 

"That shine above Mount Oread!" 

I watched the struggling valley lights 

Push bravely out against the dark 
The while his fancy's quickened flights 

Bridged all the years and made his mark. 
Youth and ambition know no bars 

And they — and faith — were all he had ; 
So his hopes rose and touched the stars 

That ni2;ht upon Mount Oread. 

In after years he sometimes sent 

A word of hail across the way; 
But how those drifting years were spent 

Or what they brought, he did not say, 
Nor could I guess. Yet once, alone. 

He wrote, half jestingly, half sad: 
"There are no stars like those that shone 

That night above Mount Oread !"' 

^ ^ :jc ^ 

Tonight I watched them down below — 

The valley lights — now bright, now dim, 
And wondered what of weal or woe 

The fickle years had brought to him 
Who once, when all his world was young, 

Had dreamed his dream of fame — dear lad ! — 
And dared to set his hopes among 

The stars above Mount Oread ! 

Esther M. Cl§/rk. 



(42) 



GOOD-NIGHT. 
By Esther M. Clark. 

Good-night, my dear. The warm day died 

In sunset's afterglow ; 
The faint, far candles of the sky 

Were lighted long ago, 
How brave they shine on me and mine 

From out that field of blue! 
And one afar points where you are, 

And watches over you. 

Good-night, my dear. Across the dark 

I send my love to you. 
And may your sleep be sweet and deep, 

And all your dreams come true. 
And may there be one dream of me 

To keep my memory bright, 
Lest you forget I love you yet. 

And so, my dear, good-night. 

{Copyright, 1912, hy Esther M. Clark.) 



(43) 



THE LAND BEYOND THE VALLEY. 

A dreamer on the hillside, in late September's glow, 

Looked down upon the valley that lay serene below. 

The blue wood-smoke upcurling, the fresh brown earth upturned, 

The winding road where dully, the dusky sumach burned, — 

All these and more he saw not, for past its farthest rimi 

The land beyond the valley was beckoning to him. 

The fresh winds of September that sweep in from the west 
Had filled his soul with longing and swayed it with unrest. 
Beyond that little valley there lay a land unknown. 
And some day he would seek it and claim it for his own. 
Ah, some day he would follow past where the sumachs burn 
The gray road leading outward, and nevermore return. 

And so he dreamed ; and, dreaming, forgot the hot unrest — 

That human cry for something unseen and unpossessed — 

Till once again September across the valley stepped 

And he must needs remember. The old, strange longings swept 

Upon himi; yet, as ever, in changing blue and gray, 

The hovering mists, unlifted, above the valley lay. 



(To you and me. Beloved, though well content we seem. 

At times there come, unbidden, the vision and the dream. 

What yours may be, I know not ; and mine you may not know. 

Yet 'tis the same unquiet of soul that shakes us so. 

And though sweet Fortune bring us gifts rich and marvellous. 

Some land beyond the valley will always beckon us.) 

Perhaps if he could wander adown the hillside green. 
Across the little valley that lieth in between. 
And find the land beyond it, then its enchanted air 
Would fade and he should find it less wonderful and fair. 
Ah, happier he a-dreaming that dream no chrnge can dim ; 
The land beyond the valley whose gray mists beckoned him ! 

Esther M. Clark. 



(44) 



No one ever has formulated a completely comprehensive 

definition of poetry; but all great critics of the art agree that 

tnie poetry must be the embodiment of energy, emotion and 

rhythm. The rhythm should not be simply an art production ; 

indeed, that would mean, in a sense, only mechanical expression. 

The rhythm of the great poetic soul is deeper, stronger, more 

characteristic than anything art can produce. It is life itself 

expressed in flowers, in trees, in the songs of birds and the 

whistling of winds ; it runs with the babbling of brooks ; it comes 

with 

"the sensuous-sweet perfume borne in from a thousand 
gardens and orchards of orange bloom ;" 

it is felt in 

"the silent mountains, stunned by the breakers' roar," 

and in 

"the restless ocean pounding and tugging away at 
the shore;" 

it is heard in the voice of the prairie, calling the soul of its own 

loyal poet again to 

"the sight of a shy, wild rose by the roadside's dusty way," 

and holds it to be sweeter 

"than all the splendor of poppy-fields ablaze in the 
sun of May." 

And to that soul 

"the sunflower, tawny and gold and brown" 
expresses itself in the rhythm of nature as being richer than 

"the bold poinsettia and the burden of pepper trees," 
while rising 

"ever above the song of the hoarse, insistent sea" 
is the voice of the prairie calling, calling for her return. And 
the very heart of that poet beats and throbs with this wonder- 
ful, rhythmic measure in its sublime utterances: 

(45) 



"Kansas, beloved Mother, today in an alien land, 

Yours is the name I have idly traced with a bit of wood in the 

sand. 
The name that, flung from a scornful lip, will make the hot 

blood start ; 
The name that is graven, hard and deep, on the core of my loyal 

heart. 
O higher, clearer and stronger yet, than the boom of the savage 

sea, 
The voice of the prairie, calling, 

Calling me." 

The ability to express the rhythm of nature is the highest 
quality of the soul, and but few possess it. This quality is a 
law unto itself and transcends all prescribed rules of art. It 
laughs at prosody while it lifts the soul to elevations it other- 
wise could not reach. 

Esther M. Clark possesses this ability in a wonderful de- 
gree, and it is shown in every verse of poetry she writes. While 
she may not realize it, nor fully appreciate it, this ability char- 
acterizes her as one of nature's true poets. 

**The Call of Kansas" may not "thunder down the corridors 
of time ;" it does not belong to the "thundering" class, but it will 
hold a prominent place in the classic literature of our most won- 
derful State as long as Kansas literature is known to the world : 
and Esther M. Clark will be its accredited author. 



The legal profession always has been disgraced at times by 
some member of the fraternity, who, disregarding truth, attempts 
to make a case where only possible coincidences exist, putting all 
effort on the framing of falsehoods for material purposes, so as 
to present the most plausibility possible. These dishonorable 
frauds eventually become well known to their legal associates 
and are finally dropped out forever by the fraternity. 

If the case of Emma Clark Karr vs. "The Call of Kansas"' 
were tried in court it would be characterized by the legal pro- 

(46) 



fession as purely a ''frame up," and the presiding judge would 
lose no time in dismissing the case at the cost of the complaining 
witness. 

In the trial of the case before the public one general ques- 
tion to' be asked of Mrs. Karr is sufficient. As expressed by the 
Fort Scott Tribune : "If you are the real author of 'The Call 
of Kansas' why did you not support your claim to it when you, 
were reading the poem year after ye&r accredited to Esther M. 
Clark r 

Some of the old Greek philosophers were puzzled to know* 
why anyone should love to lie where it made not for pleasure, 
profit, nor advantage, and only for the lie's sake. They would 
still be puzzled, if this case were submitted to them. 

There can be no possible pleasure, profit or advantage going 
to Emma Clark Karr in trying to establish her claim out of 
absolute falsehoods. 

And, too, we find it difficult to agree with William Allen 
White on the theory that Mrs. Karr is afflicted with an "over- 
stimulated imagination." No one with abilitv to write a classic 
like the "Call of Kansas" could possibly forget the circumstances 
surrounding its conception and fail to know when and where it 
was first published to the world, if ever it were conceived and 
published. And such a person would have the original manu- 
script, or copy thereof or the publication containing it, or some 
other certain and positive evidence of authorship ; especially 
where nothing more extraordinary had happened to her than 
getting married. 



Conclusive proofs that Esther M. Clark is the author of 
"The Call of Kansas:" 

First: She is a true poet and author of many real poems. 
All of her poems are characterized by the same spirit force that 
so notably distinguishes "The Call of Kansas." 

(47) 



Second: When the Secretary of the Kansas State Histor- 
ical Society called upon both Esther M. Clark and Emma Clark 
Karr to file with said Society their respective proofs of author- 
ship, Esther M. Clark responded at once with a very compre- 
hensive sworn statement covering all details in the history of her 
poem, together with many letters and papers going to the sub- 
ject of proof of her authorship. 

Third : The letters and papers filed by Miss Clark with the 
Historical Society fully and completely corroborate her statement 
in regard to the production of the poem, which corroborative 
testimony includes a letter from Honorable J. L. Brady, editor of 
the Lawrence Journal-World, to Mr. W. E. Connelley, Secre- 
tary of the State Historical Society, dated August 24, 19 14, in 
which Mr. Brady states that he named the poem^ ''The Call of 
Kansas," which fact Miss Clark admits in her affidavit filed with 
the Society. 

Fourth: The poem itself, both in construction and subject 
matter, proves that Esther M. Clark is its author. 

Fifth : The claim of Emma Clark Karr that she is the 
author of "The Call of Kansas," not raised for seven years after 
the poem became historic and was accepted by the literary world 
as a classic from the mind and soul of Esther M. Clark, is so 
preposterous as to destroy itself and call for condemnation upon 
the heads of all who attempt to uphold it. 

Emma Clark Karr fails, and refuses, to file with the His- 
torical Society one word of real evidence in support of her claim, 
and she has failed entirely to 'find one publication of any poem 
she ever zvrote on Kansas. If she were innocent and honest in 
this matter she would make her affidavit, as did Esther M. Clark, 
giving her complete story of the production of the poem, and 
would explain how in the month of July, at a great National 
Teachers' Association, she became so desperately homesick that 
her very soul broke forth in poetic greatness and produced "The 
Call of Kansas," allowing only her imagination to see "the 

(48; 



poppy-fields ablaze in the sun of May," though she was in the 
heat of July. 

Slander is ''the foulest whelp of sin ;" and the English vocab- 
ulary is insufficient to sufficiently condemn the individual and 
individuals who wrongfully, knowingly and willfully attempt to 
appropriate to themselves such meritorious honor and reputation 
as attained by Esther M. Clark in the literary world. 

Esther M. Clark is the author of ''The Call of Kansas," and 
her name will be held in reverence by every lover of Kansas 
literature until long after Emma Clark Karr and her muse are 
forgotten. 

This Brief is followed by the Opinions of two very able 
Judges : 

First: By Honorable J. W. Finley, present Judge of the 
Seventh Judicial District in Kansas, whose reputation for learn- 
ing, fairness and correctness places him in the front rank of 
Judges in this State: 

Second: By Honorable L. Stillwell, a Judge of great dis- 
tinction for twenty-five years in the State of Kansas, and later, 
First Deputy Commissioner of Pensions at Washington, under 
President Taft. The opinions of these eminent Judges will be 
seriously considered and stand for much in the minds of all in- 
telligent people interested in this subject. 

To the press in general of this State is due the warmest 
expressions of appreciation for the noble stand taken on behalf 
of Esther M. Clark's claim of authorship. Were it not that the 
press is always first and foremost in the fight for right many 
a strong character would be utterly crushed and consigned to 
oblivion. 

Respectfully submitted, 

S. W. BREWSTER. 



(49) 



OPINION OF JUDGE JAMES W, FINLEY 

IN THE MATTER OF THE AUTHORSHIP 

of 

"THE CALL OF KANSAS." 



'"The Call of Kansas," written by Miss Esther M. Clark, in 
May, 1907, while residing temporarily in California is, at this 
late day, being claimed by Mrs. Emma M. Clark Karr. She 
asserts that the poem is the offspring of her genius ; that it was 
written by her while in Cahfornia in July 1899, sent as a part 
of a letter to her mother, then residing in Hutchinson, Kansas ; 
that her mother exhibited it to a friend, a Mrs. Nettleton ; that 
this Mrs. Nettleton had a son who was a printer working for 
the Hutchinson Gazette, and that the poem was set up by him 
and printed in the Hutchinson Gazette in July, August, Septem- 
ber, or October of the year 1899. All these alleged facta appear 
from letters written to W. E. Connelley by Mr. Karr, the hus- 
band of Emma Clark Karr, or from other statements made by 
Mrs. Karr or her husband. It also appears from an affidavit of 
I. L. Dayhoff that he saw the original manuscript, written by 
the hand of Mrs. Karr. While this affidavit has been given to 
the press, strange to say, it has not as yet been filed with the 
State Historical Society. Indeed, a very strange circumstance in 
this controversy is that no proof has been siibnutted by Mrs. 
Karr in response to the request for it, although her husband 
boasts that she has much more authentic proof of authorship 
than has Miss Esther M. Clark. 

On the other hand, Miss Clark promptly submitted to the 
State Historical Society her proof of authorship in compliance 
with the request of its secretary, W. E. Connelley. This cir- 
cumstance may be regarded a slight one but withal it argues 
nothing in favor of the claim of Mrs. Karr. The claim and 
recognition of Esther Clark has been open and notorious for the 
past seven years and anyone disputing her claim to authorship 
should do it openly. I have no doubt that if any facts were 
available, tending to support Mrs. Karr's claim, that such proof 
would have been filed long ago. 

The affidavit of I. L. Dayhoff as published has subjected 
him to some very severe criticism in the public press of Kansas 

(5Q) 



and from other sources as well. These criticisms I shall not 
repeat, but there is one feature of this affidavit I desire to call 
attention to which has hitherto been overlooked. In his affidavit 
he avers, ''That in the summer of 1899, while I was Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction of Reno county, Kansas, I went to 
Los Angeles, California, with a party of teachers to attend the 
National Teachers' Association which met there that year; that 
in the party was a young lady by the name of Emma M. Clark 
who lived in the city of Hutchinson and was a teacher in the 
schools of South Hutchinson ; that while in the city of Los An- 
geles on said trip and some time in the month of July 1899, the 
said Emma M. Clark read to me the poem entitled "The Call of 
Kansas," a copy of which poem is hereto attached marked Ex- 
hibit "A" " Mr. Dayhoff remembers how he came 

to be in Los Angeles in July, 1899, which was "to attend the 
National Teachers' Association which met there that year." But 
the National Teachers' Association did not meet in Los Angeles 
in July, 1899, nor in any other place in the United States. There 
has been no National Teachers' Association in the United States 
since 1870. On July 11, 1899, the National Educational Asso- 
ciation met in Los Angele& and this, of course, is the association 
meeting Mr. Dayhoff attended. This discrepancy in the 
sworn statement and the fact discloses a want of attention to 
names on the part of the affiant. If he, being a schoolman of 
presumably more than ordinary ability, has forgotten the name 
of the greatest educational association in the United States, is 
it not more than probable that he has also forgotten not only 
the name of the poem, but the poem itself, conceding for the 
moment that Mrs. Emma Clark Karr did read a poem of some 
kind to him in Los Angeles in July, 1899? It will at least raise 
a question in a fair mind whether Emma Clark Karr read to him 
"the poem entitled 'The Call of Kansas,' a copy of which is 
attached" to his affidavit. And the conviction that he is mistaken 
becomes stronger when it is discovered that his office files do not 
disclose a single reference to "The Call of Kansas" or any sim- 
ilar poem, although his affidavit states that in political and edu- 
cational addresses he "quoted from said poem very frequently." 
Nor is there to be found a single reference to any such a poem 
in the Kansas press prior to its publication in the Lawrence 
Journal in May, 1907. I cannot believe that a new poem of the 
fine sentiment and unusual quality of "The Call of Kansas" could 
be concealed from the newspaper men of Kansas if, in both 
political and educational addresses, it was quoted from "very 
frequently" by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

From such record of the alleged facts as has been furnished 
UD to this time it does not appear that anv person knew of Mrs. 
Karr's claim of authorship to "The Call of Kansas" until re- 
cently, excepting herself and I. L. Dayhoflf. It is matter of 

(51) 



common knowledge, however, that Esther M. Clark has for more 
than seven years in the most open and public manner possible 
treated the poem as belonging to her. The press of the State 
has so treated it, and the public at large. It has been printed 
so often over the name of Esther M. Clark and quoted so fre- 
quently with compliments to her that no well informed person 
can truthfully plead ignorance to the fact. Mrs. Karr's claim 
to the authorship of the "The Call of Kansas" and Mr. Day- 
hoff's record as a public official demand that they be credited as 
well informed persons. Hence it follows that neither of them 
can successfully plead ignorance of the fact that "The Call of 
Kansas" has been for years accredited to Esther M. Clark. With 
this knowledge there rested upon both of these parties a moral, 
if not a legal, duty to declare the true author and to expose the 
"literary pirate. ' I can think of nothing that would bring a 
quicker denial of the authorship of a pretender or a more spon- 
taneous assertion of the truth from the real author, and others, 
knowing who the true author was, than this would do. Yet in 
this case Mrs. Karr and Mr. Dayhoff, so the recorded facts 
show, were as silent and as tongueless as the tomb. It is a rule 
of law that, "A failure to assert a fact, when it would have been 
natural to assert it, amounts in effect to an assertion of the non- 
existence of the fact. This is conceded as a general rule of 
evidence." Wigmore on Evidence, Volume 2, Section 1042 

Miss Esther M. Clark has filed her affidavit with the State 
Historical Society, averring her authorship to the poem in ques- 
tion, and her explanation of the circumstances leading up to 
writing "The Call of Kansas," is so simple and natural that it 
gives her testimony unusual weight and credibility with the 
mind accustomed to examining and sifting evidence. 

In every controversy witnesses differ as to what is the fact, 
and to ascertain the fact a skillful mind will search for the cor- 
roborating facts that tend to sustain one side or the other as to 
the main fact. These collateral or corroborating facts determine 
the controvery where otherwise it may be wholly conjecture as 
to who is right or wrong. In this controversy the corroborating 
facts support the claims of Esther M. Clark. In the first place 
the poem bears internal evidence of having been written in the 
month of May. That is when Miss Esther Clark was in Cali- 
fornia and it was in that month the poem was sent to Mr. Brady. 
Mrs. Karr does not pretend to have been in California at any 
time except in the month of July. Second, those who were 
familiar with Esther Clark's style of composition and habits of 
thought attributed the poem to her before her name was given 
to the public in connection with it. This to my mind is a con- 
clusive bit of corroborative evidence. Mr. E. E. Kelley, editor of 
the Toronto Republican, who perhaps knows Esther Clark's 
st3de of composition and attitude of mind better than any other 

(52) 



newspaper man in the state, says that "her monogram was 
broidered all over it," and at once he picked her as the author. 
Mr. Kelley expresses a doubt as to the competency of his con- 
clusion as evidence. There can be no doubt as to competency. 
It is expert proof of the most reliable character. 

Who wrote "The Call of Kansas"? Let us examine the 
question by a process of elimination. It was written by Esther 
M. Clark or it was written by Emma Clark Karr. A great many 
poems have been written by Miss Clark, some of them equal to 
"The Call of Kansas" so far as rhythm, imagery, beauty and 
that indefinable something that marks the difference between 
rhyme and poetry are concerned. Mrs. Karr has written some 
verse, but not a single line inspired at the Muses' flame. It 
follows that her claim to the authorship of "The Call of Kan- 
sas" must be regarded as spurious. 

JAMES W. EINLEY. 

Chanute, Kansas, October 15, 1914. 



(55) 



OPINION OF JUDGE L STILLWELL 

IN THE MATTER OF THE AUTHORSHIP, 

of the Poem, 

"THE CALL OF KANSAS." 



In May, 1907, Miss Esther M. Clark, of Chanute, Kansas, 
while temporarily at Los Angeles, California, wrote a beautiful 
and affecting poem. Shortly thereafter she mailed a copy there- 
of, inclosed with a letter from herself, to Hon. J. L. Brady, pub- 
lisher of The Lawrence (Kansas,) Journal. On May 14, 1907, 
Mr. Brady published the poem in his newspaper, under the title 
of "The Call of Kansas." In compliance with the request of Miss 
Clark, her name was not then published as the author of the 
verses, but later, at the request of Mr. Brady, she consented 
that her name might be so given to the public which was accord* 
ingly done in The Lawrence Journal early in June, 1907. Fol* 
lowing close on the first publication of the poem down to the 
beginning of the present controversy, it was published through- 
out the country in almost every paper in the State of Kansas, 
and in many papers in other states with the name of Eslther M. 
Clark as the author. It has also been so published in books, 
booklets, folders, on souvenir postal cards, and in various other 
ways. Miss Clark, from about the first of the year 1908, in her 
capacity as the author, has recited the poem before numerous 
social clubs and at public meetings and gatherings in the State 
of Kansas, and elsewhere. And during all these years, to as 
recent a period as May, IQ14, there was not a whisper, or an in- 
timation given to the public, from any source, that the poem was 
not the production of her hand and brain. Under these circum- 
stances every fair minded man and woman will surely say that 
should another claimant for the authorship of the poem appear 
at this late day, the proof of such claimant in support of the 
claim should be clear, consistent and conclusive. 

In May, 19 14, a Mrs. Karr, of Girard, Kansas, came before 
the public with a contention that she is the author of "The Call 
of Kansas" and, by consequence, that Miss Clark is a moral 
forger and an imposter. It is not my intention in this brief 

(54) 



paper to examine at length every piece of her alleged evidence 
on the question. Hon. S. W. Brewster, of Chanute, Kansas, 
himself a literary man, and a lawyer of unquestioned fairness 
and ability, has prepared for publication a full, able, and con- 
vincing brief on the facts, and in so doing has left but little to 
be further said. I will confine myself simply to a few proposi- 
tions which, in my judgment, should themselves convince any 
candid mind that the claim of Mrs. Karr is a sheer fabrication. 

She alleges that she composed and wrote this poem in the 
summer or fall of 1899, and that soon thereafter it was published 
in the Hutchinson, (Kansas), Gazette. Her statement of the 
publication of the verses in a newspaper, at the time aforesaid, 
is an important and material one, and if the poem could be found 
in the paper named, and anywhere near the time she indicates, 
with corroborating proof that she furnished the copy, it would 
surely be a circumstance in her favor. But the files of that 
paper are in existence, and have been carefully searched, with the 
result that this poem cannot be found neither at the date she 
mentions, nor at any other time approximate thereto. Therefore 
it must be treated as a fact that her allegation of the publication 
of the poem at her instance, in the Hutchinson Gazette is noi 
true. 

We have a rule of law, inherited from our English ances- 
tors, and which universally obtains in this country, in substance 
that if a witness knowingly and intentionally testifies falsely to 
any material matter in controversy, that fact will then justify 
the rejection of all the testimony of such witness. In view of all 
the circumstances of this controversy that rule should now be 
applied to the testimony of Mrs. Karr from beginning to end. 

And aside from the acknowledged fact that the poem is not 
found in the Hutchinson Gazete at the time claimed by Mrs. 
Karr, another significant matter can be pointed out strongly 
corroborative of the fact that it never did appear there, nor in 
any other paper until given to the Lawrence Journal by the real 
author, Miss Esther M. Clark. As the Kansas public well know, 
the poem attracted wide-spread attention and attained instant 
popularity as soon as it was published. In the phrase of the 
day, it "went the rounds" of all the Kansas press. Now, if Mrs. 
Karr wrote "The Call of Kansas/' and caused it to be published 
in 1899 in a Kansas newspaper, where was it slumbering during 
all the years between that date and 1907, when people first learn 
ed of its existence from the columns of the Lawrence Journal? 
It is unreasonable and inconsistent with all the known facts to 
suppose for a moment that this thrilling: and remarkable literary 
production would have fallen dead and completely dropped out 
of sight for about eight years. 

There is another undisputed fact in connection with this 
extraordinary claim of Mrs Karr's, which, it seems to me, con- 

(55) 



clusively shows that her pretentions are absolutely groundless, 
and devoid of a particle of merit. It is acknowledged on all 
hands that soon following the first publication of the poem in 
1907, it was regarded as a literary gem ,and its beauty and 
touching pathos were the subject of favorable and enthusiastic 
notice and comment throughout all Kansas. And hand in hand 
with the fame of the composition went the name of the young 
writer, Miss Esther M. Clark. In appreciative recognition of 
her genius she was honored, and feted, and lionized, throughout 
the State, and el sewhere. The verses, on souvenir cards, in 
folders, and otherwise, adorned with her picture and authen- 
ticated by her name, went into every nook and corner of the 
State. Does any reasonable human being suppose that Mrs, 
Karr, if she had been the author, would have submitted to this 
for a moment? From her standpoint, here was another woman 
who certainly was becoming famous, and possibly getting rich, 
by reason of her appropriating with brazen effrontery, verses 
that she (Mrs. Karr) had herself written and caused to be pub- 
lished away back in 1899! If there is any woman (or man 
either) that would "stand for that," I don't think the specimen 
can be found in Kansas — or anywhere else. 

It is a well settled principle appertaining to the law of evi- 
dence that in construing testimony on any given proposition, it 
should always be done in the light of "the ordinary laws that 
govern human conduct." The Telephone cases, (126 U. S. i ; 
same case, 31 Law Ed. on p. 1000.) It is altogether right and 
proper to apply this rule to the conduct and actions of Mrs. 
Karr in this matter. We see her remaining profoundly silent 
as to her alleged authorship of this poem for seven years, and 
that, too, while right before her face, and open to her observa- 
tion in every hamlet in the State, Miss Clark was claiming the 
honor, and the same was being conceded to her by acclamation. 

Dr. Cook has his believers, and Joanna Southcott and the 
Tichborne claimant respectively had theirs, but I submit, in the 
utmost sincerity, that all fair minded and distinterested people, 
in the light of the undisputed facts, w^'ll be constrained to re- 
gard this literary claim of Mrs. Karr's as unreasonable and pre- 
posterous. 

L. STILLWELL. 
Erie, Kansas, September 29, 1914. 



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